Prior Cosmetic Techniques and Their Disadvantages
Prior art techniques for modifying the appearance of skin include natural tanning, artificial tanning, and the deliberate application of cosmetics. Each of these prior art techniques has limitations.
Typically, the applications of cosmetic substances to skin are largely manual, for example through the used of brushes, application tubes, pencils, pads, and fingers. The application methods makes prior art cosmetics imprecise, labor intensive, expensive, and sometimes harmful, when compared to the computerized techniques of the present invention.
Most prior art cosmetic approaches are based on the application of opaque substances. There is a need for the precise application of reflectance modifying agents (RMAs), such as transparent dyes, to provide a more effective modification of appearance.
Manual cosmetic applications are imprecise compared to computer-controlled techniques, and this imprecision may make them less effective. For example, the heavy application of a foundation base for makeup may cause an unattractive, caked-on appearance.
Manual techniques typically take a long time to employ, as can be seen in any morning commute on a highway, where people frantically take advantage of stops to finish applying their makeup.
Manually applied makeup is not cheap, and when the help of professionals such as beauticians is required, is even more expensive.
Often the materials applied to the skin in manual techniques are themselves potentially harmful. For example, a foundation base for makeup may cause skin to dry out and may inhibit the skin's breathing. Sunlight or artificial light used for tanning may cause cancer.
Therefore, there is a need for the precise application of reflectance modifying agents (RMAs) to provide a more effective, more automated, faster, less expensive, and less dangerous modification of the appearance of skin.
In this specification, the terms “reflectance modifying agent” or “RMA” refer to any compound useful for altering the reflectance of another material, and are explained in further detail below. Some examples of RMA are inks, dyes, pigments, bleaching agents, chemically altering agents, and other substances that can alter the reflectance of human skin and other features. The terms “dye” and “transparent dyes” are used for brevity in this specification to represent any RMA.